Welcome to Journey Into Misery, where I explain complicated comics characters, continuity and concepts to the patient and perpetually perplexed Helena Hart.

While the X-Men deal with world-ending crises, someone needs to be there for the little guy, and that’s where X-Factor comes in. A mutant private investigation firm that becomes something so much more, in one of the best, most loved runs of the 21st century.

52: The Podcast is a year-long retrospective of the groundbreaking weekly American superhero comic 52 from DC Comics.

How does a world without Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman get by? Poorly, at least to start, but their absence provides a space for new and unlikely heroes to step-up and save the world and maybe even themselves.